‘Burnt by the Sun’

Nikita Mikhalkov (left), who directed and co-wrote this beautiful, wrenching 1994 film and co-stars with his 6-year-old daughter Nadia (center with Ingeborga Dapkounaite), is best known for his ability to re-create Russia’s past. The undisputed master here is virile, mustachioed Col. Serguei Kotov (Mikhalkov), who’s enjoying a typically idyllic Sunday in the late ‘30s when his life and that of his family is abruptly forever changed (TMC early Friday at 5:35 a.m.).